22:7Matthew 22:7

The verse tells what the king does after his servants sent to call the invited guests to the wedding are despitefully used and slain, that hearing of it he is wroth and sends his armies to destroy those murderers and burn up their city before the invitation is sent elsewhere.COL 307.2–308.1+4 It foretells the judgment that fell on the Jewish people and Jerusalem for rejecting God's mercy and persecuting His messengers, fulfilled when the Romans were permitted to destroy the city and scatter the nation.COL 308.2–3+2 Because those first bidden proved unworthy, the invitation is turned to those in the highways, that all who will come may be gathered so the king's house may be full.Ms 18, 1899, par. 1–4+2 Those so gathered are examined by the King and accepted only when clothed in the wedding garment, which is Christ's imputed righteousness received by faith and shown in obedience to all God's commandments.GC 428.1–2+4 The warning applies with especial force to the Christian world today, for profession without transformation, coming in one's own defiled garments, insults the King and ends in exclusion with no second opportunity after probation closes.Lt 49, 1887, par. 5+3

The verse comes after the invited guests mistreat and kill the servants sent to call them to the wedding, when the king hears of it, becomes wroth, sends forth his armies, destroys those murderers, and burns up their city by fire, before the invitation is sent elsewhere.Ms 143, 1898, par. 1–3+4 It is part of the parable of a king making a marriage for his son that shows how God deals with men over the gospel invitation, where refusal to come passes into violence against the messengers and is followed by destruction upon the killers and their city.Ms 143, 1898, par. 1–3+2 The rejected invitation therefore leads to judgment on those who reject it and kill the servants, and then to the call going out to others.Ms 143, 1898, par. 1–3+2

The call to the feast is a king's invitation proceeding from one vested with power to command and conferring high honor, yet the honor is unappreciated and the authority despised.COL 307.2–308.1+1 While indifference met the householder's invitation in the parable of the great supper, the king's invitation is met with insult, scorn, despiteful use and murder of his servants.COL 307.2–308.1+2 Those who do despite to the king receive more than exclusion from his presence and table, even the destruction of the murderers and the burning of their city, because refusal of a king carries deeper guilt.COL 307.2–308.1+2

Those first bidden were the higher classes, the princes of the land, the chosen people, who made light of the call and went to farm and merchandise.Ms 18, 1899, par. 1–4+2 They refused because they were wholly intent on worldly gain, buying and selling, planting and building, prided themselves on getting gain and thought they could not afford worldly loss for the heavenly feast.Ms 18, 1899, par. 1–4+2 They felt no respect for the master of the feast, were turned back from the Lord without seeking or inquiring for Him, and trusted their own wisdom as sufficient.Ms 18, 1899, par. 1–4+1 While some went their way to temporal business, merchandise, farms and social attractions, the remnant entreated the servants spitefully and slew them, rejecting conviction with harsh words and despising reproving truth and arguments from Scripture they could not meet.Ms 18, 1899, par. 1–4+1 For this unworthiness the king was wroth and destroyed those murderers and burned their city, and then turned the invitation from them to those in the highways who were not so absorbed that eternity was left out.Ms 18, 1899, par. 1–4+1

The parable is of a king making a marriage for his son and shows how God deals with men over the gospel invitation.Ms 46, 1896, par. 1–2+1 The marriage represents the union of humanity with divinity, and the royal wedding feast pictures a heavenly celebration to which the King calls His own.COL 307.1+1 The feast represents a lifelong gospel invitation reaching into eternity that those who truly receive Christ and yield to God are fitted to partake of, while those who refuse do not taste of the supper.COL 307.1+1 The wedding-feast parable also illustrates the gospel invitation and the King's scrutiny of those who attend, representing the investigative judgment before the marriage in which the king examines the guests' characters, accepts those wearing the wedding garment, and casts out the unprepared.GC 428.1–2+1 Guests are accepted only when they meet the King's requirement by wearing Christ's robe of righteousness.GC 428.1–2+1

The verse foretells the judgment that came upon the Jewish people for rejecting God's mercy and for persecuting the messengers who brought the gospel after Christ's crucifixion.COL 308.2–3 In it Jesus plainly warned the Jews of the fate awaiting Jerusalem for rejecting the only means God had provided to save them.Ms 46, 1896, par. 11–13 The picture of the king's armies destroying those murderers and burning up their city refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jewish nation.COL 308.2–3 That warning was fulfilled when the Romans were permitted to carry out their purpose and destroy the fated city.Ms 46, 1896, par. 11–13

Those invited first made light of the gracious invitation with contempt, turning to temporal business, merchandise, farms and social attractions.Ms 46, 1896, par. 11–13 They then went further in rejecting conviction with harsh words, despising reproving truth and hating arguments from Scripture which they could not meet.Ms 46, 1896, par. 11–13 They entreated the messengers spitefully and slew them, and when the king heard of their wicked deeds he sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city.Ms 46, 1896, par. 11–13 They refused because they were wholly intent on securing worldly gain, had no respect for the master of the feast, were turned back from the Lord and had not sought nor inquired for Him, and trusted their own wisdom as sufficient.RH May 8, 1900

By this course the Jewish nation decided its own destiny and as a nation divorced itself from God.Ms 149, 1898, par. 7–8 Those first invited had all the privileges and opportunities of the richest banquet ever presented to man, and consented to come and accepted the invitation.Ms 149, 1898, par. 7–8 But they refused the garments of Christ's righteousness, and in rejecting the only begotten Son of God they forever separated themselves from God.Ms 149, 1898, par. 7–8 The king's wrath is the punishment of the day of the Lord's sacrifice, when God punishes the princes and the king's children and all clothed with strange apparel, and all that fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.RH May 8, 1900

The feast was prepared for the benefit of the invited, but they chose lesser interests instead.Lt 7, 1869, par. 6–7 The door is shut and they seek admission too late, for those who reject the king's invitation to the marriage feast lose the opportunity to attend.Lt 7, 1869, par. 6–7 The call to salvation is not repeated after probation closes.Ms 59, 1895, par. 34–39 Those who receive the warning and the offer of pardon but refuse them, turn from light and truth, and accept falsehood will have no second opportunity to come to the feast.Ms 59, 1895, par. 34–39

The wedding-garment lesson warns that hearing and assenting to truth without being changed by it is not enough.RH Feb 26, 1901 The garment represents Christ's righteousness, which must be received personally and shown in a purified daily life.RH Feb 26, 1901 A profession of faith without that transformation cannot be accepted by God.RH Feb 26, 1901

Accepting the invitation, Come, for all things are now ready, means professing to accept Christ as personal Saviour and wearing His distinguishing dress.Ms 143, 1898, par. 6–8 That dress is the truth as it is in Jesus, the robe of Christ's righteousness, the white linen of a clean pure character.Ms 143, 1898, par. 6–8 The supper is justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ.Lt 61, 1893, par. 2–3 Refusing it is clinging to the old citizen's dress and the old life lived in ignorance instead of accepting the dress prepared by the Lord Jesus Christ.Lt 61, 1893, par. 2–3+1 Such acceptance puts off the old citizen life, changes speech and conversation, and makes faith stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men.Ms 143, 1898, par. 6–8 Those who refused prided themselves that they would buy and sell and get gain and thought they could not afford worldly loss for the heavenly feast, and their refusal to put off common dress for Christ's robe showed whether they were His church, married to Christ as His bride.Ms 143, 1898, par. 5

Those clothed in that righteousness obey God's commandments and are fit to join the family of heaven and the blood-washed people at the King's feast.COL 315.1 Claiming the gospel's privileges without repentance, faith in Christ, or a changed life does not make a person fit.COL 315.1 The man's citizen's garments picture character that leaves him unfit, for the wedding garment is the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness and receiving the invitation without it does not make one ready.Lt 24, 1892, par. 5–7 Human merit cannot take the place of Christ's righteousness.COL 315.1 Those who persist in self-will and fail to gain the experience needed to be clothed in Christ's righteousness will be excluded.Lt 24, 1892, par. 5–7

God is not unjust or arbitrary when He separates the wrongdoer from His presence, and His discipline is no more severe than His Word imposes.Lt 49, 1887, par. 5 In the wedding invitation the king provides the wedding garment purchased for the guest, which is the robe of Christ's righteousness.Lt 49, 1887, par. 5 To accept the invitation yet refuse that garment and come in one's own defiled garments, thinking they are good enough to enter Christ's presence, insults the Lord and abuses His gracious benevolence, and brings severe casting out.Lt 49, 1887, par. 5 Human righteousness will not do; the sinner must put on Christ's righteousness and be like Jesus.Lt 49, 1887, par. 5 Jesus endured the long fasting temptation in the wilderness and trod the winepress alone to bring divine strength and divine power to conquer appetite, including beer, wine and strong drink, and every unholy passion and break Satan's control.Lt 49, 1887, par. 5

Coming to the banquet without the garment means claiming to believe the truth while carrying self unsanctified without reformation of heart.Lt 94, 1898, par. 10–15 It is having Christ not in the heart and only talk of the Word in the mouth and truth kept in the outer court, for the garment is Christ in character.Lt 94, 1898, par. 10–15 Such guests may utter high truths yet the work of the Holy Spirit is strange to them, they are hearers only and not doers with the living oracles as guide, building on sand.Lt 94, 1898, par. 10–15 Not having the garment means having a form of godliness without manifesting the inward workings of the Holy Spirit in life practice, while seemingly active in service and always ready to counsel how the work should go without counsel from above.Ms 111, 1906, par. 1–3 Those without it need to search their hearts thoroughly and come into humble, sacred nearness to God, or ere long they will fully understand what it means to come unready.Lt 94, 1898, par. 10–15+1

Those who nominally accept the truth but do not practice it feel free to come to the supper while refusing to put on the wedding garment, the righteousness of Christ.STMW10 4.2–5.1 Though professedly circumcised they walk with the uncircumcised in covetousness.STMW10 4.2–5.1 They are represented as guests without the garment because they have accepted truth only in name.6T 295.2 They have every privilege of Bible truth yet choose ease and selfish indulgence and fail to improve entrusted talents and to use their abilities to seek and save the lost.STMW10 4.2–5.1+1 They are accountable for privileges and abilities not faithfully used in service.6T 295.2 The Lord will not spare them any more than the veriest sinner but will destroy them with the uncircumcised, and the warning also applies to those who received truth but do not live it, who come without Christ's righteousness and will be destroyed with those who openly practice sin.STMW10 4.2–5.1+1

No one at the marriage supper of the Lamb has a garment of his own that gives a position of honor.8MR 309.1–310.1 Eyes fixed on Jesus show human weakness, poverty, defects, and a lost hopeless condition clad in garments of self-righteousness like every other sinner.8MR 309.1–310.1 Worthiness to sit at the feast comes only by accepting Christ's robe alone, the garment woven in the loom of heaven.8MR 309.1–310.1 That robe is spotless as the pure white lily, proffered by Christ as the richest gift that can be bestowed on mortal man and to be secured by giving whole attention to it.Ms 109, 1901, par. 9+1 It is the imputed righteousness of Christ alone, offered to the lowliest who will believe in Him as personal Saviour.8MR 309.1–310.1 Salvation there is not because of superior intellect or refinement of ideas but through the grace of God.8MR 309.1–310.1 That robe makes the sons and daughters of Adam members of the heavenly family.8MR 309.1–310.1

The marriage feast is the redemption Christ offers to the world, prepared by His atoning death.Ms 139, 1898, par. 83 The wedding garment testifies to that death.Ms 124, 1898, par. 40–41 The rich repast of truth is to be proclaimed by those who follow Christ, who wear the robe of Christ's righteousness.Ms 139, 1898, par. 83 They do not live to please themselves but convey the invitation to others by the message they bear and by the garment they wear, proclaiming the truth of redemption.Ms 139, 1898, par. 83+1

The parable opens a lesson of the highest consequence that must be studied carefully for its full meaning.Ms 13, 1899, par. 1–2 It presents the marriage of humanity with divinity and shows the standard of character each must reach to be accounted a fit guest.Ms 13, 1899, par. 1–2 Presumption in matters of eternal interest results in loss of the soul, for many do not agree with the standard God has given but measure character by their own ideas.Ms 13, 1899, par. 1–2 God will fulfil every specification of His promise, but continuing in sin hinders Him.Ms 13, 1899, par. 1–2 All who decide for Christ must take a firm stand and surrender to God that which is already His own.Ms 13, 1899, par. 1–2 Unless the righteousness of Christ as defined in the sixth chapter of John is accepted, the wedding garment is not on.Ms 13, 1899, par. 1–2 The invitation and its blessings cannot be rightly valued by the carnal natural person who does not discern spiritual things, for the kingdom is a banquet where guests are expected to come clothed in the white robe of Christ's righteousness.Ms 70, 1901, par. 6–8 Accepting the heavenly call means obeying the truth rather than merely agreeing with it, and those who hold back refuse a gift God has provided.14MR 19.1–3

The heavenly banquet was prepared by God sending His Son to die for the world so that through faith people become one with God.6MR 388.2 Its promises are not made to a few but to all who will come, with no walls keeping any living soul from salvation.6MR 388.2 Predestination includes all who will accept Christ as personal Saviour, return to loyalty, and live in perfect obedience to all God's commandments.6MR 388.2 All willing to be saved by Christ are God's elect, a peculiar people chosen from among men, with the obedient predestinated from the foundation of the world.6MR 388.2 The final call must be answered by being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.Lt 115, 1899, par. 4–5

Because those first called proved unworthy, the invitation was turned from them to those in the highways who were not so absorbed in worldly gain that eternity was left out.Ms 18, 1899, par. 1–4 Their rejection caused the call to go out to others, gathering all who are willing to come so that the house may be filled.Ms 185, 1903, par. 1–3+1 Those who are faithful and keep God's commandments may enter the city and receive the promised reward.Ms 8, 1874, par. 18

That going out is the call to the gospel feast, the banquet of God's Word, the marriage supper of the Lamb.Lt 4, 1899, par. 17–18+1 It is to be carried to the highways, and before presenting doctrines not yet understood the first and most important work is to reveal Jesus as the Sin-bearer and sin-pardoning Saviour.Lt 4, 1899, par. 17–18 People must heed the call and make ready to enter.Ms 8, 1874, par. 18

The parable presents that invitation as a final appeal connected with the final invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb before Christ's soon coming.6T 412.2 The call must reach those who have not yet heard it and be proclaimed as a final appeal before His coming.GW 64.3+1

The invitation was first given to those in the higher walks of life and is to be brought to people in high places and urged upon them.Ms 18, 1899, par. 9–10+2 Those in the highways represent the higher classes in the highways of life, a class with whom few can obtain association and who raise the question of how they can be reached.Ms 74, 1900, par. 11 The call comes to shepherds of the flock and divinely appointed teachers, to men in business life and positions of trust, to men with large inventive faculties and scientific insight, to men of genius and God-given powers of organization.Ms 18, 1899, par. 9–10 Such men are needed to manage institutions where industrial work is carried on, to act as leaders, captains and educators in conferences, to look ahead and discern what needs to be done, to act as faithful financiers and as presidents of conferences, and to stand as solid as a rock to principle in the present crisis and in future perils.Ms 18, 1899, par. 9–10 They are to be sought with tender affection and brotherly regard, for it is the Lord's will that men entrusted with many talents shall hear the truth in a manner different from the way they have heard it in the past.Ms 18, 1899, par. 9–10

Christ sends the wedding-feast gospel invitation to the great men of the earth, for whom He paid the ransom of His own precious blood and by being a Sin-bearer opened the way for all who desire eternal life above every earthly consideration.Ms 46, 1896, par. 14–16 Their excuses answer why there are not more great and noted men among believers: they hear that all things are ready but listen to the foe, make this present world their god, and adopt foolish excuses to avoid the marriage contract and supper.Ms 46, 1896, par. 14–16 They refuse Him who could give real value to their characters, bring them back to allegiance to God and His commandments, make them truly great, turn their crosses into crowns, place His own image upon them and change them into obedient loyal children.Ms 46, 1896, par. 14–16 God allows each to choose his own Lord, which is why so few worldly-wise men are in the ranks of Jesus.Ms 46, 1896, par. 14–16 The judgment on those who reject the invitation warns that God will judge people in responsibility who place themselves above divine law, yet He can humble rulers and those who repent may be used, so the invitation to the gospel feast is to be given earnestly to every rank including the influential, who need spiritual food and must prepare for immortal life.Lt 34, 1900, par. 28–31

The parable has more especial application to the Christian world today who claim to believe in Christ.Ms 149, 1898, par. 7–8 From those newly invited guests found in the highways and hedges the Lord requires just as implicit obedience and high-principled service as from those first called, and no mistake is to be made about those called to the heavenly banquet.Ms 149, 1898, par. 7–8

God has given His church the invitation to the gospel feast and the work of inviting others from the highways and hedges that His house may be full.STMW10 4.2–5.1 Christ's parable is of a banquet He has prepared for men of the world, rich and poor, to give repose from earth and peace and happiness and joy, and servants are to urge them in, take hold of them and bring them to His table.Ms 109, 1901, par. 9 The wedding garment provided for guests is the robe of Christ's own righteousness, spotless as the pure white lily, proffered by Christ as the richest gift that can be bestowed on mortal man and to be secured by giving whole attention to it.Ms 109, 1901, par. 9 Those who nominally accept the truth but do not practice it feel free to come to the supper while refusing to put on that garment, and though professedly circumcised they walk with the uncircumcised in covetousness, so having every privilege of Bible truth yet choosing ease and selfish indulgence and failing to improve entrusted talents they will be held accountable and the Lord will not spare them any more than the veriest sinner but will destroy them with the uncircumcised.STMW10 4.2–5.1 Believers are to pray, work together with God, and urge people to accept the invitation to the marriage supper without lowering the standard of God's law, for faith works through love for other souls and seeks to bring them to that supper.STMW10 4.2–5.1+2

If those given great light and opportunity had done the work God desired, people of every class in the South would have been invited to the gospel feast.7T 222.1 God's invitation is a feast that can satisfy every need, setting before souls a banquet that will satisfy every want, His word full of marrow and fatness.Lt 153a, 1897, par. 16–18+1 The invitation is offered but the response rests with those invited: every heart can respond to God's love if it will and those who seek God wholeheartedly will find Him, though not every heart does respond.Lt 153a, 1897, par. 16–18+1